Covid-19 (Coronavirus)

Introduction

It’s hard to miss the fact that the country is preparing for Coronavirus (also known as Covid-19), but whilst there’s a lot of information available, there’s not a lot of advice tailored to the needs of small, local third sector organisations.

This webpage aims to direct you to the information that is available, and to fill some of the gaps.

If you are able to, please follow the below advice within your organisations building to help keep reminding everyone:

Make sure you have supplies available for people to wash and dry their hands in line with the advice on the Poster.

News

Coronavirus advice for fundraising organisations-The Fundraising Regulator – Although new Government advice applies in England as of today, social distancing measures remain in place. We advise you to review our advice on fundraising, which takes into account the latest health guidelines. In the coming weeks, we will be producing further guidance with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising to support charities and fundraising organisations to adapt their fundraising practices as the situation develops. Keep up-to-date with our Coronavirus advice hub for further announcements. It is essential that all fundraising continues to be carried out in a way that is legal, honest and respectful, and follows the Code of Fundraising Practice.

Wirral Infobank – has details of all the local Wirral organisations offering support to residents. www.wirralinfobank.co.uk

A new online learning platform to help boost the nation’s skills while people are staying at home, has been launched today (28 April) by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. Free courses are available through a new online platform hosted on the gov.uk website, called The Skills Toolkit. The new platform gives people access to free, high-quality digital and numeracy courses to help build up their skills, progress in work and boost their job prospects.

People who are concerned they are suffering symptoms that may be due to Coronavirus can use the tool on the NHS 111 website in the first instance where possible (or phone 111) to check what they should do:

Larger third sector organisations will find useful information on the government’s webpage for businesses. Some of the information will also be relevant to smaller organisations and to volunteers as well as staff.

This includes information on when employees should stay away from work, how to respond to employees who need to take time off work, and how to clean premises after someone develops Coronavirus.

As the number of cases of Coronavirus or COVID-19 continue to rise in the UK, Wirral Chamber of Commerce are working closely with partners to ensure that businesses and communities are prepared for any potential impact.

The Chamber have set up a dedicated Coronavirus Business Helpline to provide all businesses and organisations with a one-stop-shop for information and guidance. They are are continuing to monitor the potential impact on the local economy and are encouraging businesses to keep them updated with any issues that occur as a direct result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Mind are offering advice around how to help your wellbeing if you are required to self-isolate or worried about the coronavirus and covers the following areas: Plan for staying at home or indoors/ take care of your mental health and wellbeing & a checklist to see if you are ready to stay at home for two weeks?

What can small voluntary and community organisations do to prepare for Coronavirus?

At this stage, one of the most useful things that organisations can do is to think about how their organisation will cope if a high proportion of their staff or volunteers become ill or unavailable at the same time, and what steps you might take to avoid this happening. Many of these steps involve reducing the time people spend together in order to reduce the chances of Coronavirus spreading between them (and affecting a lot of the people you work with at the same time)

Remember that people may be unable to work even if they have not become ill themselves – it could be, for example, because schools have closed and people need to stay at home to care for their children or grandchildren.

Information on potential impacts of the Coronavirus on third sector organisations in Wirral

The following document has been created to help raise awaireness around how the Coronavirus can potentially impact the third sector organisations in Wirral. We hope this will help fill in any gaps from national advice which has been focused more towards businesses and an individuals health with little specific information for small and relatively informal third sector organisations.